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Stolen Credit Card?

Tomer Yair Zemel

Keep this for a rainy day! This is what you do in the case of a stolen credit card and also, how to possibly avoid such an alarming situation!

Did you know? about 270,000 reports of credit card fraud and over 165 million records containing personal data were exposed through breaches in 2019 only! This is a global pandemic that has extended throughout the years and does not seem to be quieting down, even with Apple and Google pay at large. Credit card or identity theft crimes are reported daily to the federal trade commissions.

Yes, it is a scary thing and this happens more often than you would think but do not fear, there are perfectly reasonable ways to handle it. I do hope this never happens to you but If, your card is stolen or lost, keep these steps in mind. you have ways to both protect yourself and handle these types of situations.

So what do you do when your card is stolen, physically or digitally? Here are the common steps:

• Immediately contact your credit card company and announce a stolen card
• Prepare all the needed information to identify yourself to the credit card company
• Any fraud charge should usually be canceled and you should not be charged at the worst case by more than 50$
• Do check your insurance coverage - you might not need to pay even 1$!
• Follow up and keep records of all data from the point reported
• If you got quick access portals, change your login information
• Make sure to monitor your credit card statement and report any additional charge
• Review your credit report and claim a dispute of any fraud as soon as you see it (Don't worry this should not hurt your credit score)
• Protect yourself from future credit card fraud with every measure possible!

You should know, under the Fair Credit Billing Act (FCBA) your maximum liability for unauthorized charges should be $50. For instance, if someone makes $1000 in fraud charges with your card, you can only be required to pay $50. However, most major banks, such as Citi and Chase, offer $0 liability on unauthorized charges so when you get a new card, ask to see what the company policy is!

Keeping those steps in mind, in order to avoid this type of unfortunate cases, it is also suggested to take the following steps in your everyday life:

• Make sure to follow on your credit charges by App notification or visibility to credit card actions
• Pay only on secured sites (HTTPS
• Secure your physical cards as much as possible
• Do not keep the same password for all your cards and accounts(!)
• Do not place card numbers on public wi-fi sources without VPN activated
• Do not write down your credit card passwords, use other ways as there are multiple free software to maintain passwords
• Be aware of possible fraud (online ads are many times fraud)
• Avoid sharing your credit card number over the phone unless you are the one who made the call.

As always, please keep safe in the digital space!

Sincerely yours and hope you will never face any kind of theft,

Tomer Yair Zemel

SafeHouse Team